Knights Apparel sweat free collegiate initiative gains ground

The Knights Apparel company has been working for several years to provide a sweat free alternative to all the licensed collegiate apparel that is sold in college bookstores and other retailers across the country.

“Overall, we are very happy with the progress that has been made to date. To cite a key example of this progress, Barnes & Noble College Booksellers has committed to selling the Knights Apparel product in roughly 350 of their stores and they have made a strong commitment to launch a robust and multi-faceted marketing campaign to spread awareness of the initiative. This is obviously a very significant development: there is widespread agreement that achieving a higher level of respect for workers’ rights in the apparel industry requires greater participation on the part of large retailers. For a major retailer like Barnes & Noble to lend its enthusiastic support to this initiative is very heartening and we commend the company’s leadership…

Meanwhile, discussions on the ground in the Dominican Republic with the manufacturer, and with worker representatives and local civil society groups, are continuing. These discussions, which focus on the labor rights compliance and verification process, have gone very well. This work is being coordinated on the ground by the WRC’s staff person in Santo Domingo.”

UH SAS’ liaison with the WRC, Theresa Haas, informs us that the plan is to have the sweat free clothes in Barnes and Nobles bookstores as soon as the factory gets up and running. The University of Houston bookstore is run by Barnes and Nobles so we’re hoping to see a sweat free alternative on our campus soon.

If you click on the link below you can see the details in a 3 page memo from Joe Bozich, the CEO of Knights Apparel to all the universities (including U of Houston!) affiliated with the WRC.